Internal combustion engines, such as those found in automobiles, trucks, and other vehicles, contain reciprocating pistons outfitted with expandable rings fitted into grooves cut into the exterior circumferences of the pistons. The rings are designed to expand and contract as the pistons and piston walls expand and contract due to heat generated by the engine in order to prevent the passage of oil into the firing chamber and to contain the combustion products of the engine within the combustion chamber. Over periods of use, the ring grooves become contaminated with burned carbon and other foreign materials generated through the combustion cycle. Contamination of the grooves prevents efficient expansion and contraction of the rings and diminishes the efficiency of the engine.
Typically after prolonged periods of use, internal combustion engines may be dismantled and the rings of the pistons replaced. If the accumulation of carbon and other foreign matter in the grooves is great enough to prevent proper functioning of the rings, the grooves are normally cleaned of the carbon and other foreign material. In the past this has been a very difficult and time consuming task. Mechanics have resorted to sharp instruments, such as chisels, knives, screw drivers, and other objects to clean the hardened carbon from the grooves. Even skilled mechanics have had great difficulty in preventing scoring or scratching of the grooves as the hardened carbon has been chipped away.
Attempts have been made to place commercial products on the market which provide for the cleaning of a single groove at a time on a piston. However, experiences prove that such devices are as time consuming as traditional methods of chipping by hand, and moreover do not clean all of the foreign material and accumulated carbon from the grooves, so that a manual second cleaning has been required. There is nothing known in the act or in the marketplace which will permit a mechanic to efficiently clean all of the grooves on a piston quickly and efficiently.
It is an objective of this invention to provide an apparatus for the efficient and fast cleaning of all ring grooves in a piston at one time. It is a further objective to provide means for bearing the pressure exerted by cleaning blades within the grooves of the pistons.